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Cover Love 7: New Year, New Covers

Well, it's been a while since I recapped covers! Some of these garnered national tv spots, others tried to sneak in under the radar!

Let's just get this out of the way, shall we? I'm not loving this. In fact, I believe I may prefer the placeholder to the actual cover. I liked the way the original three cut the faces because I just do not love Clary's face (to be fair, I didn't love Simon or Jace's either; I also like the models for the first three better, even with their faces cut off). And I get that it's a metaphor, but the fact that Sebastian is all black and shadowy freaks me out. I do plan on buying this immediately and loving it, but this cover is a miss in my book.

City of Heavenly FireThe Mortal Instruments #6

Cassandra Clare

Margaret K. McElderry (S&S)
May 26, 2014

Summary:

ΕRCHOMAI, SEBASTIAN HAD SAID.I am coming.

Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls
apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band
together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced:
Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they
journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love
sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last
installment of the Mortal Instruments series!

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This next one is another series book I'm excited about, but again, not wild about the cover. The Hundred Oak books have lovely matching photographic covers. The Sourcebooks team seems to be going in a different direction with this one, and I don't particularly care for that direction. However, again, I know I'll love what's inside. I only wish they'd use prettier wrapping!

Breathe, Annie, BreatheHundred Oaks #5

Miranda KenneallySourcebooks Fire

July 1, 2014

Summary:

Eighteen-year-old Annie
Winters can barely run a mile without wheezing. Still, she’s training
to run the Music City Marathon in seven short months. Running is so not
her thing, but she has to finish what her boyfriend started… before he
died.

Annie feels guilt that she’s still alive and blames herself
for his death. Plus, training gives her something to do, it’s a
distraction. So is Jeremiah Brown.

He’s an adrenaline junkie who
runs marathons backwards. He flirts with Annie on the trails and it
makes her feel alive and happy and guilty all at the same time. She
wants to both race into his arms and sprint in the opposite direction –
because loving is a risk she’s not sure she’s ready to take again…

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I have another cover to UPDATE (not post for the first time)! I didn't care for the original cover of Synchrony by Cindy Ray Hale. In fact, I didn't care for it so much that I put it on my TTT for covers I'd most want to redesign. It's not a bad photo, per se, but it has the look of being amateur. For the record, that's a real couple in the picture. There's nothing wrong with it; it's just not a book cover. Then Cindy had a professional photoshoot for another version, and I'm happy to say I think this is a winner! It matches the first book, Destiny, so much better, and that's always a plus in my book!

SynchronyDestiny #2

Cindy Ray Hale

2014

Summary:

When her parents
discover she’s been sneaking out with Isaac Robinson, the forbidden
Baptist boy, Mormon girl Destiny Clark decides it’s time to keep their
relationship quiet. As their relationship moves to shakier ground,
Destiny discovers that Isaac has a terrible secret, and she is left
completely shattered.

The moment Destiny feels all hope is lost,
Preston Nelson, her longtime church friend and Isaac's bitter rival,
arrives like a beacon of light. It isn't long before two separate
disasters strike for Preston and Destiny's best friend, Hannah. As
Destiny helps them through their issues, she discovers that sometimes
the best way to forget about your own problems is to help a friend in
need.

Just as her heart begins to mend and her friendship with
Preston begins to heat up, Isaac walks back into her life, threatening
to rekindle the feelings she’d hoped to bury forever. Will Destiny and
Preston find the synchrony they so desperately need, or will she find a
way to forgive Isaac and return to his outstretched arms?

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This next one, I just find gorgeous. This cover has magic. It reminds me of a movie poster in the best way.

Orenda

Ruth Silver

Patchwork Press
2014

Summary:

Lil has a gift, one she
never thought possible as she finds herself awake after a strange dream
with the tell-tale sign that what she dreamt was in fact real. The
dreamscape, was more than just a premonition it happened. She’d been
momentarily tossed into another dimension. Where most would consider
her crazy, not her best friend Bray.

In another reality, one
similar and yet slightly different Willow has been kidnapped by the
sorceress turned demon, Eilith. Rawlie, Willow’s friend and companion
crosses to our universe for help and brings Lil into his world. Filled
with frightening creatures and magical elements, Lil demands to go home,
until she discovers Bray has been taken by Eilith as well. Unable to
watch her best friend die, she joins forces with Rawlie, Jamie and the
others to hunt down Eilith and rescue those they care about.

Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma
just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the
Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie,
her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people
hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity
causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think
she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma's
plan is working (she's finding it hard to resist Josh), but she's
finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit
fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to
expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who
she is?

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Not a bad cover, but it doesn't grab me. The summary is pretty interesting, though. I think I'll be checking this one out.

The Kiss of DeceptionRemnant trilogy #1

Mary E. PearsonHenry Holt

July 15, 2014

Summary:

In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world.

In
a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a
preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the
revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are
perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance
with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the
morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles
into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers
arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an
assasin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on
the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself
falling in love.So, what do you think of this brand-new batch of covers? Are there any you'll read just based on the cover? Let me know!

8 comments:

I was going to read City of Heavenly Fire even if it had an ugly cover! But it definitely helps that this cover is AMAZING!! Also I added Orenda and The Kiss of Deception to my TBR! The covers are really beautiful! I can't wait to read them :)Thanks for this awesome post!

I have never really loved any of the covers of The Mortal Instruments series, but this one is definitely the worst. I didn't think the creepy cut off faces could get worse, but HAVING faces made them even more horrible, somehow.

I don't love the covers for The Infernal Devices series, either, but they are definitely better than these. Everything is just TOO MUCH.